Case Study: Hudl and THEOplayer help coaches and athletes win

In this case study we will outline how and why the sports and technology company Hudl uses THEOplayer into their popular sports video analysis platform.

Customer

Hudl is a leading software company revolutionizing the way coaches and athletes at all levels (from youth to the NFL) prepare for and stay ahead of the competition. Founded in 2006, Hudl now offers the tools to edit and share video, study associated play diagrams, and create quality highlight reels for entertainment and recruiting purposes. The whole experience is available online, giving coaches and athletes secure access at home and on the go. Brian Kaiser, CTO of Hudl, mentioned that Currently, around 130.000 teams from all over the world are using our products, including football teams from the Bundesliga and rugby teams from Australia. More information on www.hudl.com.

Challenges

In the past, Hudl have been using video players relying on a plug-ins like Silverlight or Flash for playback on desktops. They felt that this was restricting them in further improving their product and maximizing their platform coverage. Hudl needed a video partner with a full HTML5 player and a comprehensive feature list. This would allow them to offer their video analysis tools on all platforms, without forcing the customer to first download a video plug-in and improve the usability when they could make their tools faster accessible and more accurate.

THEOplayer is, first and foremost, truly a trusted partner for us. They listen to feedback and suggestions for product features and are very responsive to our requests. This allows us to have an open dialogue and to continuously improve things together. THEOplayer pushes boundaries with THEOplayer, something we also like to do. - Brian Kaiser, CTO of Hudl.

A Winning Combination

Cross-platform support without plugins: Hudl's web and mobile products for Windows, Mac, iOS and Android connect all members of a team around the video and data they need to win. THEOplayer helps Hudl help all coaches and athletes to access the video content anywhere they want. They can log in directly from their browser from any computer or mobile device to analyze and distribute video with coaching notes and advanced statistics, without the need to install a plug-in. THEOplayer is clearly the best-in-class HTML5-based video player on the market, says Brian Kaiser, CTO for Hudl. It offers us the best playback solution possible for our needs, in combination with an outstanding customer service.

Frame Accurate Seeking: The THEOplayer frame accurate seeking functionality helps users to immediately and accurate find the right video action moment they are looking for, instead of having to forward or rewind a bit to find the exact starting point of an action.

Variable Playback Speed: The variable playback speed, or trick play, options such as Fast Forward and Slow Motion allows coaches and athletes to more quickly identify relevant actions and plays during a game. As well as to allow them to analyse actions in more details with the slow motion playback options. This helps coaches and athletes to further improve their game.

You don't need a lot of time to find out how well THEOplayer works. You just need 10 minutes with the player and you'll experience it yourself. The player is best in class. We definitely recommend it! - Brian Kaiser, CTO of Hudl.

Impact & Results

Brian Kaiser, CTO for Hudl, mentioned that THEOplayer clearly helped Hudl to improve the quality perception of their video analysis tools and to decrease the number of complaints. This obviously helped increase customer retention.

In case you have questions about this case study or about the product THEOplayer, do not hesitate to contact us. Would you like to test THEOplayer?